Your E-Resume's File Format Aligns with its Delivery Method

E-resume, or electronic resume, is a broadly used term that covers
several types of resumes. Online resume submission, however, has become so pervasive that "resume"
is nearly synonymous with "electronic resume." The way a resume is intended to be
delivered to its recipient determines the technological approach you
should take to the resume's preparation. This article describes the
most common types of e-resumes and offers some general guidelines on how to create them.

Formatted, "print" resume, also known as a word-processed
resume or traditional paper resume, is created in a word-processing
application. Microsoft Word is the most widely used and is advisable to
use for that reason. If you are sending your formatted, print resume as an attachment to an e-mail
message, it is inadvisable to use a program other than Word. File extensions for formatted,
print resumes include .doc and .docx. Even though most Word users can now open .docx files,
it may be best to save your Word resume with a .doc extension for the remaining users who cannot
open .docx. Common delivery methods for the formatted, print resume include regular
postal mail, faxing, hand-delivery (such as in a networking or interview situation, or at a career
fair), and e-mail attachment. A few words about Rich Text (.rtf): Once a popular format for resume
submissions, .rtf is almost never requested by employers anymore. and should not be used unless
you are using a word-processing application that does not enable you to convert a file to .doc
format. Looking at a resume file in .rtf also gives you a glimpse into what many employers
initially see since some applicant-tracking software converts resumes to .rtf to perform searches
on it, says Dawn D. Boyer, M.Ad.Ed., of DBoyer Consulting.

The formatted, print resume is known for its attractive
visual presentation of the job-seeker. For that reason, it is especially useful outside the sphere
of electronic delivery -- in networking situations, at career fairs, in job interviews, and on the
rare occasion when an employer requests a resume via postal mail or when you want to get extra
attention by submitting your resume both electronically and by postal mail. When sent as an e-mail
attachment, however, its formatting may appear inconsistently from
computer to computer, and it is vulnerable to viruses. Worse, the formatting probably won't
translate well to the employer's Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software. "Lines, graphics,
fancy bullets, text boxes, tables, and graphics (logos) ... are the issues the ATS programs
encounter when uploading a resume into a company's resume database," Boyer notes. Don't
send a formatted, print resume as an attachment unless (a) you're
sure it's the employer's preference, (b) you also provide another
alternative, preferably your text-based resume pasted into the body
of an e-mail message, or (c) you've stripped the resume of all but the most basic formatting.

Text resume, also known as a text-based resume, plain-text
resume, or ASCII text resume, is the preferred format for submitting
resumes electronically. A text resume, which carries the .txt file
extension, is stripped of virtually all its formatting and is not
especially visually appealing, which is OK since its main purpose is
to be placed into one of the keyword-searchable databases that the
vast majority of today's large employers now use. The text resume is
not vulnerable to viruses and is compatible across computer programs
and platforms. It is highly versatile and can be used for:

Posting in its entirety on many job boards.

Pasting piece-by-piece into the profile forms of job boards,
such as Monster.com.

Pasting into the body of an e-mail and sending to employers.

Converting to a Web-based HTML resume.

Sending as an attachment to employers, although you'll probably
also want to send your formatted version.

Portable Document Format (PDF) resume offers the advantages of
being completely invulnerable to viruses and totally compatible
across computer systems (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader software, a
free download, to be opened and read). Have you ever noticed that
when you send a resume (or any document) as an attachment from your
computer to someone else's computer, it sometimes doesn't look the
same on the other person's computer as it did on yours? Maybe it has
more pages on the other computer, or maybe Page 2 starts at the
bottom of Page 1, or maybe the fonts are different. A resume
converted to PDF, which carries a .pdf file extension, looks
virtually identical to the original document from which it was
created, thus preserving the resume's visual appeal, and it also
appears consistently from computer to computer. Many employers
specifically request PDF resume files.

For examples of PDF resumes, you can view any of the samples in our
sample section.

Web resume, also known as an HTML, Web-based, or Web-ready resume, is advantageous in a number of ways:

Employers can access your resume 24/7. If you're talking on the
phone with an employer in another city who wants to see a copy of
your resume, you can simply refer the employer to the Web address
where your resume resides.

Resumes published on the Web, which often carry the file extension
.html or .htm, enable passive job-seeking because employers sometimes
find your resume on the Web using various search mechanisms.

A resume published on the Web can be expanded into a Web
portfolio that includes links to work samples (written work, graphic
design, other Web pages you've designed, photographs, reports, etc.)
that can demonstrate your skills to employers.

If Web design is a career you are pursuing, a Web-based resume
can show off your design skills.

The only catch to having a Web-ready resume is that you need to have
a place to host it and a means to publish it. The most likely candidates for
Web-based resumes are those who already have their own Web pages or
access to Web space. For example, many universities provide Web space
for their students. But even if you don't have your own space, you
can still use a Web-ready resume. Some Web sites offer free Web-space
hosting. Check also with your Internet service provider to see if Web
hosting is included in available services.

Do not confuse a Web-ready resume with one that can be posted on job
boards, such as Monster.com. Most job boards explicitly prohibit HTML
resumes.

Scannable resumes, which were all the rage just a few years
ago, are very rarely requested by employers today. Why?
Because a scannable resume is basically a print resume that the
employer turns into an electronic resume by using Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) software and then placing it into a
keyword-searchable database. With the growth of e-mail as a mode of
communication, employers soon asked themselves, "Why are we going
through the extra step of scanning hard-copy when we could have
resumes e-mailed to us and place them directly into databases without
having to scan them first?" A former student of mine who had entered
the human-resources field once told me that resumes e-mailed to his
company could enter the database in a matter of days, while a resume
that had to be scanned could take up to three weeks to be placed in
the database because of the extra labor involved.

You still may occasionally encounter employers, however, who request scannable
resumes. The rules for scannable resumes are virtually the same as
for text resumes except that scannable resumes are generally printed
out and sent by fax or postal mail. They can also be sent as e-mail
attachments. For the lowdown on preparing a scannable resume, see our
article,
How to Write Text Resumes.

Final Thoughts on E-Resume Formats

Boyer summarizes well why applicants need a good understanding of these resume formats: "Job-seekers
must understand -- recruiters may be dealing with as many as 200-400 resumes for a single job; they
are NOT going to bother with any resume that doesn't easily convert over into their system," she notes.
"Text formatting and the MS Word Document (.doc) allows easier search capabilities within the ATS --
so should be a standard for any/all job-seekers for resumes." PDF resumes, print resumes, and Web-based
resumes, while problematic for online submission, have their uses, as well.

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search
terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Check out Dr. Hansen on GooglePlus.

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